Stocks ended today's session little changed. The Dow had a nearly 4 point gain to 13,026. The S&P was up less than a point, while the Nasdaq was down nearly 2 points.
- Speaking in a Philadelphia suburb, President Barack Obama said allowing taxes to rise for the middle class would amount to a "lump of coal" for Christmas". At the same time, Republican House Speaker John Boehner declared that negotiations over the fiscal cliff are going "almost nowhere."
- A Florida man accused of carrying out Wall Street's largest insider-trading scheme is being remembered as a student of ethics in college. Former hedge fund portfolio manager Mathew Martoma is accused of using inside information about a drug trial to engineer a scheme that reaped a quarter-billion dollars in illegal profits.
- A New York federal appeals panel has found weaknesses with a startup company's arguments it can legally send live TV programming to iPhones and other mobile devices. Judges with a federal appeals court appeared poised to reverse a lower court judge who in July reluctantly gave a thumbs-up to the company, Aereo.
- The price of oil rose 1 percent today as traders weighed a new debt deal in Europe and political posturing over looming tax increases and budget cuts. Benchmark crude rose 84 cents to close at $88.91 per barrel in New York.
